42 



INSTITXJTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 2 



Some families roast their own coffee, using beans 

 which they either have gi'own themselves or 

 bought in a local store. The roasting is done "by 

 rule of thumb." "You have to have considerable 

 experience," remarked a village woman, "to know 

 just when the forn^ (a brick oven) is hot enough 

 to put the beans in to roast. But I have done it 

 for so long, it comes easy to me. When the beans 

 are almost roasted, I sprinkle sugar over them 

 and stir them until the sugar is well burnt. I 

 can tell by the color of the smoke when it is time 

 to take them out of the oven. I then put them 

 in the pilao ^ and crush them into a fine powder. 

 It's hard work! See the calluses on my hands? 

 But we like the taste of home-roasted coffee much 

 better than that bought at the store." 



DWELLINGS AND FURNISHINGS 



Reference has already been made to the oldest 

 house in the community. It was erected in 1688, 

 as can be seen from the date carved in the lintel 

 of the front door. The inscription is in Latin 

 and reads : 



July 14, Maria, Jesus the Savior of Men, Joseph, 1688 



Another inscription, carved in the lintel of a 

 door inside the house, reads : 



Remember, man, that thou art dust! 



The house is of one story. Heavy, well-pre- 

 served beams of peroba support the tile roof. 

 The walls are of tcdpa, or earth tamped down firm 

 and solid. They are 18 to 20 inches thick and 

 calcimined inside and out. The once earthen 

 floors are now covered with brick. Slabs of rock 

 were laid down a few years ago to use as steps to 

 the front door, in place of the original earth which 

 had worn down beneath the level of the entrance. 

 The labor of slaves, probably of both Indian and 

 African origin, went into the building of this 

 house. It is still occupied and recently under- 

 went routine z'epair. 



The oldest house in the village was built "over 

 a hundred years ago."' Seven other houses are 

 from a half century to a century old. All the 

 houses in the village and on the farms are of one 

 story, with the exception of one house in the vil- 

 lage and a house on one of the farms. That in 

 the village is of two stories, the lower of which 

 is unused, except for an occasional dance. 



The farmhouse is known throughout the com- 

 munity as the casa grande (great house) . It meas- 

 ures 114 feet long by 42 feet wide and is approxi- 

 mately 33 feet from the ground to the ridge pole 

 (pi. 0, d) . The outer walls are of taijya, 2 feet thick 

 and very firm. A little over a third of the building 

 is constructed on two levels. The floors of the 

 lower level are of earth and those of the upper level 

 are of wide boards. A family of father, mother, 

 and five children and a hired hand at present oc- 

 cupy the upper level, and the lower portion is given 

 over to stables for milking cows and sheltering 

 calves and other cattle. The rest of the building is 

 open from the floor to the roof. Five heavy -peroba 

 beams, each 10 by 12 inches and weighing several 

 hundred pounds, cross the space overhead, mid- 

 way to the roof. Two large doors which used to 

 be about 13 feet high and 5 feet wide have been 

 reduced somewhat in size by bricking up a part 

 of the opening. This portion of the house at 

 present shelters equipment for making pinga}"'' 



Twenty-eight houses in the village, in groups 

 of not over five each, are joined side to side so 

 that they present a continuous front to the street 

 (pi. 6, e), as is common to Brazilian villages and 

 towns whose origin dates from the colonial pe- 

 riod. Forty-five of the 73 houses, however, are 

 separate and do not touch one another in any 

 way. One house has a small veranda, about 4 by 

 6 feet."> 



With respect to the materials used in construc- 

 tion, houses in both the village and on the farms 

 are of two kinds : paio a pique and brick. In the 

 village, 28 of the 73 houses are pau a pique and, 

 on the farms visited, 19 out of 26 houses. 



A pau a pique house is built of puddled earth 

 spread over a framework of sticks. Four strong 

 poles are set vertically in the ground to form the 

 corners of the building and four other poles are 

 laid horizontally to connect them. Oipo, or more 

 frequently in recent years nails, are used to fasten 

 the poles together. Longer uprights are then set 

 in the ground at the center of each of two sides 

 and a ridge pole is laid upon them. Parallel to 

 the uprights, smaller poles are placed until the 

 sides are entirely filled in, the poles not being set 

 in the ground but merely supported by it. At 



" See p. 45. 



'" See Dl.qtillation of Pinga, p. 89. 



i"i Of the 73 houses, 41 are owned by their present occupanta 

 and .32 are rented. Rentals range from 10 to 200 cruzeiros per 

 month, with an average of 46 cruzeiros. 



